He was invited to a meeting to view the new Cybermen costumes for Revenge of the Cybermen, and suggested the idea of them having inbuilt guns. This was incorporated into the design. (INFO: Revenge of the Cybermen)

Briant had originally been an actor, working under the stage name Michael Tennant, as there was already a Michael Bryant registered with Equity. Having started using his own name as a director, Briant later added the initial "E" to avoid confusion with the aforementioned actor, after the pair apparently began receiving each other's mail.